Tuesday, July 14, 2009

girls rule, boys drool

I was sitting in the library the other day, giving a silent reading test to five boys. The boys are in first year, and some don't really speak a lot of English. It's interesting to give tests to kids that really don't understand what I'm trying to tell them, just lots of exagerated facial expressions and hand gestures. The test had gone well, I had timed them and they were finishing answering the comprehension questions. The only thing left to do was staple their answer sheets to the data sheets that each student gets, and that's where I started to laugh. I let the boys staple their papers, I swear, this was the first stapling some of them have ever done. The stapler gets to the last boy, and of course, it jams. He looks at me like, now what? I hold my hand out to help him, but before I can get the stapler, one of the other boys grabs it. I hold out my hand to him so I can fix it, but then another boys grabs it. Yeah, each boy at the table completely ignored me as the stapler was passed up and down the table, each boy thinking he could solve the terrible delima of the jammed stapler. I could read their thoughts like their were quote bubbles floating above their heads... "no way can this girl solve the problem." Yeah, well, I eventually got the jammed stapler, banged it once on the table, unjammed the stapler, and may have possibly earned the respect of five more boys at school.